John Vianney

Jean-Marie Vianney was born in France on 8 May 1786 and became a Catholic priest and member of the Third Order of Mary. Assigned to the parish of Ars, he threw himself into confession and mortification with such intensity that the community around him began to change - what had been ordinary became, by all Catholic accounts, radically transformed. His devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and his unrelenting work in the sacrament of penance became legendary; people traveled from across France to sit in his confessional. He died on 4 August 1859, and the Church canonized him in 1925, designating his feast day as the date of his death and naming him patron saint of parish priests.